The present invention relates to a pneumatic tire including a protector disposed on the surface of a sidewall, more particularly to a pneumatic tire having a ride comfortability improved with maintaining a good cut resistance and with suppressing increase in weight of the tire.
Pneumatic tires used for vehicles traveling on rough roads, e.g., four-wheel-drive cars and trucks, frequently get a cut at the sidewall portion by impact of stones. Therefore, in order to prevent such a damage, it is proposed to enhance the cut resistance by disposing a protector on the surface of a sidewall portion of the tire. For example, JP 2003-112505 A discloses disposing a protector “c” projecting axially outwardly as shown in FIG. 7 on the surface of a sidewall portion “a”. However, since such a protector “c” extends continuously in a circumferential direction of the tire, the volume of a rubber increases, thus resulting in increase of the tire weight. Further, such an annular protector “c” has a problem that the ride comfortability is deteriorated since the longitudinal rigidity of the tire is excessively enhanced by the protector.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pneumatic tire including a protector disposed on the surface of a sidewall and having a ride comfortability improved with maintaining a good cut resistance and with suppressing increase of the tire weight.
This and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the description hereinafter.